#263 was a long comparison of the two English newspapers of South Korea, the (basically) left-wing Times and the(basically) right-wing Herald. (Don't think that the adjectives that preceded each newspaper title in the preceding sentence give you any full or clear idea about in line with U.S. or other Western politics. Notably, for certain complicated reasons, racialism is more associated with the political Left in Korea. The DPRK regime itself is certainly racialist.)

Somebody arrived at my quiet corner of the Internet here, I presume via a Google search, and left a comment asking for specifics on the broad tendencies I discussed in #263. I had stated in the post that as this is just for my own "entertainment" and kind of a personal reflection on things I'd observed over a long period, I didn't want to dig through archives to tendentiously and/or pedantically prove everything. Why do it? It would turn into a big research project for which I have no time.

But I'll do it anyway, in a limited way because he sort of challenged me to. I can use examples from this very week to show that Times is left-wing Herald is right-wing. This will prove to be very easy to do, as you'll see if you read any more below.

It so happens that a small, far-left political party was banned on Friday by the South Korean government for being "anti-constitutional" and allegedly supporting North Korea, a criminal offense. This wasthe Unified Progressive Party (UPP) (통합진보당). It had several of its elected, sitting members of the national legislature jailed after the government implicated them in a supposed "pro-North Korea plot" in 2013.

This was the first time that South Korea has ever banned a political party. That was Friday. Now consider the two newspapers' lead editorials published the next day, Saturday.

Left-leaning Korea Times chose not talk about the ban handed down the previous day at all (anywhere on the opinion page), but talked instead about the inevitably-related issue of North Korea:

Take special notice of the bolded parts above. The Times editorialist is calling for South Korea to be (we might say) "soft on North Korea". A renewal of the Sunshine Policy, the years-long irritant of the South Korean Right which has been mothballed for years.

There is also a not-subtle mockery here of the South Korean right-wing for "parroting the U.S." This is a nod towards the idea often voiced by the Korean Left that Korea is under threat of "becoming an American colony" (whatever that means). Ultimately, this must draw at least some of its water from the racialist well. "Let's support our fellow Koreans, not be led around by White outsiders". They cannot directly say something like that, of course. They walk a fine line.

Now look at the Korea Herald editorial, which waved the "anti-red flag" high and clear.

Demise of radicals The Constitutional Court’s ruling to disband the leftist Unified Progressive Party was a long-awaited, legitimate move to drive out dangerous radicals disguised as “liberals” from this society.

The court, announcing the result of its yearlong adjudication on a petition filed by the government, ruled Friday that the UPP should be disbanded because its objective and activities violate the basic democratic order protected by the Constitution. [...] But the end of the legal war does not mean that we can lay down our arms against the staunch leftists. The UPP and its loyal supporters will not easily give in to what they call “a ploy to destroy conscientious liberal political forces.”

One more thing we should watch out for is the possibility that the same anachronistic radicals will attempt to regroup and create a surrogate party. Friday’s ruling includes a ban on any such attempt, but we are well aware that the radicals are good at reorganizing themselves.

Never again should they be allowed to attempt to gain a foothold in any sector of this society, not least the parliament. [December 20th, 2014 editorial, "Korea Herald"]

The Herald editorialist has no time for the view that going around banning political parties is a really dangerous game.

The left-leaning Times, while it didn't editorialize on the subject on the day after the ban, did report on the ban as itslead story on the front page, using the subheading "Unprecedented ruling on UPP met with hurrahs, fears of McCarthyism". There is some soft or tacit editorialism within this Times front-page article:

Lee Jung-hee, the party chairwoman, said after the ruling that, "Now [the Republic of] Korea is ruled by a dictator." "The Constitutional Court, which was created after the pro-democracy movement of the 1980s, has now given up listening to the people," she added.

Some people have viewed Friday's decision with concern, saying it may restrict free speech, especially when it comes to North Korea. A similar question was raised by Korean-American intellectual Shin Eun-mi, who is currently being questioned for travelling to North Korea and speaking publicly about her trips.

The Korea Times addresses this issue directly in an editorial that will appear in the Monday December 22nd edition: